Fairly routine win against Sweden... Although hard to escape the thought that the team hasn't really been tested.

Croatia looks like it could be decided tactically before they kick a ball... On one hand if rakatic and modric play like they are capable they'll completely overrun the England midfield... On the other unless they start brozovic then Alli, stirling and lingard will have a field day in front of the Croatian defence.

Best performance yet from England on Saturday. Maybe some of that was to do with Sweden playing fairly. On paper, the best finalist will come from the France/Belgium game, the two strongest squads in the competition in my opinion. Tomorrow's game will be very interesting. But England/Croatia is also a close one to call. And stranger things have happened than an underdog win a final.

Whatever happens, reaching the semis makes this World Cup a success for England. And to think many used to say Southgate wasn't up to managing when he was at Middlesbrough...

I’ve always said I couldn’t understand why he was made England manager, even though I like him and think he’s an intelligent guy, I just never thought he had the personality necessary to inspire a team. Glad to be proven wrong.

Yeah I read that article, I don't think they really got to the bottom of how he's really wasteful though; most of the time his wastefulness doesn't result in a shot at all.

Anyway, last night.

Freekick was good, but was terrible positioning by their goalkeeper. Also, Modric should have had a yellow card for the foul, but refs don't give them for that 4 minutes into a game which is stupid.

For the first half we were restricting them to shots from miles away, which was great. But we didn't really create many chances ourselves.

Second half they obviously came out having had a roasting whereas we looked nervous and as if we'd been just told to carry on as is. Which never works. I felt a change in system was probably needed, but it's the thing that Southgate hasn't really done. Kane was anonymous in the second half, and when we did get forward we were just isolated.

And frankly, we didn't deserve to go through with defending like that for their second goal.

Lastly: VAR. Has there been a decision to simply stop using it? There seemed like a bunch of things that happened that could have been resolved quickly by VAR without even interfering with the flow of the game; a few incorrect decisions for goalkicks versus corners, the ball clearly going out of play on a couple of instances, Kane being hacked to the ground on a couple of occasions and simply told to get up.

They don't use VAR for fouls outside the area unless it's a red card offence, and they don't use it for corners or throw ins. Had Kane scored in the first half, it would have been used to rule out the offside flag that was incorrectly raised. But because the 'keeper saved it, the freekick was given instead of the corner that would have kept the pressure on. But then the ref missed some very blatant fouls on English players - given we were second best for most of the game, we really needed those decisions to maximise our chance of stealing victory.

But I can't blame the officials for the result - Croatia deserved to win and should have scored more. The second half was frustrating to watch with the number of simple errors England made. We repeatedly turned back to our own goal when we should have been attacking, and created unnecessary problems for ourselves. And Southgate did nothing to remedy the fact his tactics were failing completely. Three straight swaps until we inevitably conceded a second, and then he took off Walker for a striker whilst Trippier was struggling. Hopefully the lessons will be learned and we'll do better next time.

However, we have overachieved this World Cup, there's a lot of positives to be taken from the tournament, and at least people will stop misquoting that Baddiel and Skinner song now...

They don't use VAR for fouls outside the area unless it's a red card offence, and they don't use it for corners or throw ins. Had Kane scored in the first half, it would have been used to rule out the offside flag that was incorrectly raised. But because the 'keeper saved it, the freekick was given instead of the corner that would have kept the pressure on.

Fantastic World Cup one of the best I've ever watched overall which has been slightly tarnished by controversy in the final.

Overall I'd felt that VAR, whilst not perfect, had been a positive addition to the tournament but then I was absolutely amazed that the handball was given in the final for a penalty. Added to the fact that Griezmann dived for the freekick that led to the first goal and should have been booked. There is even a small argument for Pogba being offside and influencing Mandzukic who heads it into his own net.

I did want Croatia to win and felt that they were the better side for most of the game aside from 2 moments of brilliance from Pogba and Mbappe.

VAR in theory is great. VAR as implemented by the prats at FIFA has been a predictable fiasco. Highlighting the times it's corrected a bad decision misses the point that that's what it should do as the default, it's not a bonus to get some right. There's been too many occasions where it's not been reviewed, or the review has led to an incomprehensible outcome. The fact the ref needs to see footage that someone else has already made a decision on is an obvious nonsense. I'm not ranting against VAR, I'm ranting against the incompetent idiots who somehow didn't foresee that they'd ramped up the potential for controversy.